


Roots

by MirrorMystic



Category: Fire Emblem Echoes: Mou Hitori no Eiyuu Ou | Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia
Genre: Character Study, Established Relationship, F/F, Fluff and Angst, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-17
Updated: 2019-09-17
Packaged: 2020-10-20 18:29:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,498
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20679953
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MirrorMystic/pseuds/MirrorMystic
Summary: “...It would mean leaving Ram behind,” Celica admits, wary. “But I’m sure you’d get used to life in the capital in no time. And, I assure you, you’d be taken care of. I would provide for you.”Faye’s eyes flick guiltily towards Nana in her rocking chair. She stares down at her murky reflection in her tea, a knot growing in her chest.“What’s wrong?” Celica urges.“Celica…” Faye blows out a haggard breath. “...I don’t know.”





	Roots

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on Twitter at @mystic_writes!
> 
> Do you have stories to be told, but need help with the telling? Send me an e-mail at nathaneraya@yahoo.com!

~*~   
  
The first time she sees her after the war, Faye thinks she’s dreaming.    
  
She’s so astonished at the sight of her that she squeaks and slams the door in her face. A moment later, her heart pounding and her head spinning, she opens the door a crack, and murmurs, breathless:   
  
“Celica? Is that you?”   
  
Celica smiles, with a light in her eyes warmer than any hearth.    
  
“Yes, Faye. It’s me.”   
  
For a few moments, Faye is too stunned to do anything but stare into Celica’s dusky red eyes. But then she flings the door open, tears in her eyes, and pulls Celica into a bruising hug.    
  
There’s so much to discuss, and so little time. But, royal visit or not, there’s still work to be done. So Faye cooks, and cleans, and tends the garden, racing through her chores so she and Celica can just have time to themselves. And through it all, Celica helps her work, watching her with a fondness in her eyes that morphs into stubbornness every time Faye reminds her a Queen shouldn’t be doing housework.    
  
As evening falls, and Celica’s washing dishes despite Faye’s insistence she doesn’t have to, Faye has one last chore on her list. She cracks open the door to her Nana’s room, and peeks inside. The old crone is dozing off in her rocking chair, a hand-sewn blanket wrapped tight around her shoulders.    
  
Faye takes a deep breath, and closes the door.    
  
When she turns around, Celica is waiting for her on the couch, arms open in invitation. Faye beams, and sinks into her embrace.    
  
“My girl works so hard,” Celica coos.    
  
“Oh, stop,” Faye laughs, getting cozy in the crook of Celica’s arm. “If anything, you’re working harder. What’s the official reason for this visit, huh?”   
  
“Just a little supply run,” Celica says. “We’re making sure the outlying villages are stocked for winter.”   
  
Faye glances out the window. Since Ram was so small and received so few visitors, it didn’t have an inn of its own. Celica’s guards were obliged to set up camp right in the village square-- not that they seemed to mind, if the laughter around the campfires was any indication.    
  
“You’ve brought quite an entourage for a little supply run,” Faye teases.   
  
“I have to, you know?” Celica sighs. “On paper, there are still pockets of Terrors roaming about. But then, everything I do needs a reason on paper. If it were up to me…”   
  
Celica trails off, wistful.    
  
“Yes?” Faye urges.    
  
Celica smiles, and leans her head against Faye’s.    
  
“If it were up to me, I’d come here just for you.”   
  
Celica’s eyes and voice are so full of sincere fondness that Faye fights to snatch her gaze away. She excuses herself for just a moment, and reluctantly untangles herself from Celica’s arms, her cheeks burning. She slips away to her room upstairs, and when she returns, she’s holding a little wooden box.    
  
“There’s something I want to show you,” Faye muses.    
  
She slides the box open, revealing a stack of letters stamped with the royal seal-- and a ribbon the color of sunset.    
  
Celica gasps, a hand over her mouth. “You kept it.”   
  
“Of course I did. I keep everything you send me,” Faye smiles. “Do you still have…”   
  
Celica reaches under her collar and pulls out her necklace: the broken haft of an arrow and its tufts of fletching, strung on a little leather cord.    
  
“Are you kidding?” Celica beams, her eyes wet. “I never take it off.”   
  
“Oh, Celica…” Faye coos.    
  
Celica places her hand on Faye’s, before taking the ribbon from her fingers. Celica pulls Faye’s hair back, Faye shivering as the evening air hits her neck.    
  
Celica leaves the ribbon tied in Faye’s hair, her arms around Faye’s shoulders, and her eyes locked on hers, glinting in the firelight. Faye shudders, touching her forehead to hers.    
  
“I missed you so much, Celica,” Faye chokes out, the confession burning a hole in her chest.    
  
“I know. I know, Faye…” Celica whispers, tucking a stray lock of honey-blonde hair behind Faye’s ear. “May I kiss you?”   
  
Faye sighs, her breath ghosting across Celica’s lips. She smiles, mournful.    
  
“...It will only make it harder when you have to leave.”   
  
Celica laughs, trailing a finger down Faye’s cheek.    
  
“Then I guess I’ll just have to come back, then, won’t I?”   
  
Faye’s smile turns playful. “Promise?”   
  
“Promise.”   
  
~*~   
  
The second time she sees her after the war, there’s already frost on the ground.    
  
Winter in southern Zofia is never a fraction as brutal as it is in northern Rigel, and for that, Faye is truly grateful. Hauling in firewood, trapping that night’s dinner, these are things that would hardly be made easier if Faye had to trudge through a foot of snow.    
  
Still, ever since the Dragonfall, winter in Zofia has been getting harsher than most were used to. And Faye has a good reason to fear the cold.    
  
She had moved Nana’s rocking chair over by the fireplace. Nana was sitting with Celica’s bodyguard, mutely nodding along to his thrilling exploits from his mercenary days. He glances over his shoulder and flashes Faye a grin and a wink. Or a blink. It was hard to tell with just the one eye.   
  
Faye watches from the dining table, distracted, her chin propped up on her fist. Celica pulls her out of her thoughts with a warm mug of tea pressed into her hands.    
  
“Thanks,” Faye murmurs. She takes Celica’s hand with a squeeze.    
  
She brings the mug to her lips, breathing in the floral aroma. She takes a long sip, savoring the warmth and feeling it brings back into her limbs. It’s the perfect temperature, too; hot, but not too hot, courtesy of the fire charm Celica leaves imprinted on the porcelain. Faye sets her mug down, and breathes out a long, weary sigh.   
  
“You look tired, Faye,” Celica says gently.    
  
“I’m fine,” Faye says, rubbing at her eyes. “I’m sorry. What were you saying?”   
  
“I was saying, I had a… proposal,” Celica says, primly folding her hands in her lap. “It’s… I’m sorry, I know ‘Queen Consort’ is such an unromantic title.”   
  
“Not to mention you’re already married,” Faye says dryly.    
  
“Not that it stopped my father,” Celica groans. “It’ll get the nobles talking, I’m sure, and that will be a headache of its own. But it would mean I’d get to see you every day. And Alm, Gray, Tobin, Kliff, they’d all get to see you, too.”   
  
Faye sighs, and sips her tea.    
  
“...It would mean leaving Ram behind,” Celica admits, wary. “But I’m sure you’d get used to life in the capital in no time. And, I assure you, you’d be taken care of. I would provide for you.”   
  
Faye’s eyes flick guiltily towards Nana in her rocking chair. She stares down at her murky reflection in her tea, a knot growing in her chest.    
  
“What’s wrong?” Celica urges.    
  
“Celica…” Faye blows out a haggard breath. “...I don’t know.”   
  
“Why not?” Celica presses. “I would have thought… you’d be excited.”   
  
“Celica, you’re asking me to uproot my whole life!” Faye protested. “This isn’t a fairy tale, Celica. You can’t just sweep me off my feet and bring me to your life of luxury. I have responsibilities here. I have work to do!”   
  
“You already work so hard,” Celica argues. “I hate seeing you so exhausted. I just-- I feel so sorry for--”   
  
Faye was on her feet. “You feel sorry for me? You feel  _ sorry _ for me?!”   
  
Celica winces. “Faye, no, that’s not what I meant--”   
  
Faye pounds a fist into the table and sends their mugs rattling.    
  
“Ram is my home!” Faye growls. “I’ve spent twenty years here, and maybe that wasn’t entirely my choice, but I’m proud of the work I’ve done to make it this far! I won’t just throw that all away on a whim so I can be the kept woman to a Queen!”   
  
“Faye, I’m doing this for  _ you _ !” Celica shoots back.    
  
“Oh, yes, because I’m such a poor peasant girl who should be grateful her queen is lifting her out of the mud!”    
  
“Faye, I’m giving you a chance to get away from all this!”   
  
“Why me, huh?” Faye snaps. “Why should I get this chance and not anyone else in this village? If I leave with you, they still need to be up tomorrow at the crack of dawn to scratch a living just like any other day! If I leave, I’ll be just like  _ you _ !”   
  


“What?!”   
  
“You  _ left _ me, Celica!” Faye rails, tears in her eyes. “You, and Alm, and everyone else I cared about! While you were fighting a war and changing the world, I was here, tending the farm! While you and Alm were uniting a continent, I was stuck here taking care of my grandmother! Our neighbors, they’re  _ proud _ of you! You’re the ones who made it out! But guess what? Being the one who made it out just means you left people behind!”   
  
Faye stands there, seething, her hands balled into fists. Celica stares at her with a pain in her eyes that just about tears Faye in two.    
  
“...Faye…” Celica murmurs.    
  
Faye swallows hard, her jaw tight. “...I think you should go.”   
  
“Faye, I’m sorry,” Celica pleads.    
  
“I know,” Faye whispers. “Go.”   
  
Celica hangs her head, and gathers her things. Faye stands by the dining table, fists clenched tight, staring down at the floorboards. Celica’s bodyguard ushers her out the door, gives one last concerned glance at Faye, and then quietly pulls the door shut.    
  
Faye takes a deep breath, and slowly unclenches her fingers.    
  
She sits down by the fireplace, and spends a long moment staring into the flames. Then she reaches beside her, picks up Nana’s cane, and helps walk her back to her room.    
  
With Nana safely put to bed, Faye returns to the dining table. Her tea is still there, still perfectly hot after all this time.    
  
Faye spends a long moment at that table, never taking a sip. She just sits there, holding her mug and imagining warm hands in hers, until finally she stands up and pours her tea out in the sink.   
  
~*~   
  
The third time she sees her after the war, the first flowers of the season are just starting to bloom.   
  
Briefly, Faye considers just shutting the door in her face, just like she did out of shock all the way back in autumn. But it’s Celica, her Celica, and if the look in her eyes isn’t apology enough, the feathered pendant around her neck certainly is.    
  
They sit together on the couch, one cushion between them, hands stiffly folded in their laps.    
  
“Where’s Nana?” Celica begins.    
  
“Asleep. She’s sleeping a lot more, lately,” Faye shrugs. “No bodyguard this time?”   
  
“Well, this sword isn’t just for show,” Celica chuckles. She pats the sheathed Beloved Zofia, hanging by its belt off the back of a chair. “Traveling through the kingdom’s a lot safer, now. The world is at peace.”   
  
Their eyes meet for a moment. Faye glances away, troubled.    
  
“...But you aren’t,” Celica murmurs. “Are you?”   
  
Faye exhales. She glances beside her, sees Celica’s hand open in invitation on the couch cushion between them. Faye takes her hand, twining their fingers together.    
  
“I’m sorry,” Celica breathes.    
  
“No, I’m sorry,” Faye cuts in. “I shouldn’t have blown up like that. I wasn’t really mad at you, and I shouldn’t be mad at Nana. I just…”   
  
Faye blows out a sigh.    
  
“...I just… wonder what my life would be like, sometimes. If my parents were still around. If I didn’t have to do this alone.”   
  
“It’s not fair,” Celica says, squeezing her hand.    
  
“Life’s not fair,” Faye huffs. She sighs, growing wistful. “I’ve lived here in Ram all my life. I thought I loved this town. Really, I just loved the people in it. You. Alm. Gray, Tobin, Kliff. But then you left, and went on to do great things, and I was just… I was still here. And sometimes, I see my life stretching out in front of me, and I wonder if, years from now, I’ll  _ still _ be here. Alone.”   
  
Faye sniffles. She reaches up and stubbornly wipes her eyes.    
  
Celica pulls her closer on the couch, and silently draws an arm around her shoulders.    
  
“Faye, I’m sorry,” Celica murmurs. “I’m sorry you’ve been put in this position. And I’m sorry I said what I said. I don’t want to see this wear you down anymore. I want to provide for you. Not out of pity. But because I care about you, and it hurts to see you struggle.”   
  
Celica lets Faye lean into her, squeezing her hand tight.    
  
“Come to the capital,” Celica urges. “Let me take care of you.”   
  
Faye sighs. “...I don’t want your charity, Celica. I want to work for my keep.”   
  
“You can,” Celica assures. “The castle needs more trappers to keep the kitchens stocked, and the apothecaries need someone who knows their way around herbs. You’re the best hunter and woodswoman I know. You’d be perfect for the job. What do you say?”   
  
Faye purses her lips, thinking. “...I… I can’t leave Nana here. If something happened, and I wasn’t here...”   
  
“Then take her with you,” Celica says. “The castle’s clerics can help take care of her, so you don’t have to do everything yourself.”   
  
“I…” Faye faltered. “It’s a long way to the capital. I don’t know if Nana’s up to that kind of trip. And… I’d need to pack. Ask my neighbors to look after the house…”   
  
“I don’t need an answer right now,” Celica urges. “Just think about it.”   
  
Faye takes a deep breath, and lets it out slow.    
  
“...Okay,” Faye nods. “I will.”   
  
“You okay?” Celica wonders.    
  
“I… don’t know,” Faye admits, sheepish. “This is… this is a lot to take in. I’ve never, um… I’ve never… moved… before. I’ve been here my whole life. Maybe that wasn’t my choice, or what I wanted, but it’s… never really been about what I want.”   
  
“What  _ do _ you want?” Celica urges.    
  
Faye looks up. Her honeyed eyes meet Celica’s own, dusky crimson.    
  
Faye pulls Celica into a soft, tremulous kiss, full of caged yearning and quiet worry, a kiss from a woman who’s suddenly been offered everything she’s ever wanted, frightened that the offer is too good to be true. Celica takes Faye’s cheeks in her hands and kisses a promise into her lips: This is yours. You deserve this. This is real.    
  
They part, breathless, their foreheads touching. Faye shivers, her confession leaving lightning on her tongue.    
  
“You, Celica,” Faye murmurs. “I want you. But you can’t stay, and… and I don’t know if I can leave.”   
  
“You’re here now,” Celica whispers, like a prayer. “Be with me now.”   
  
~*~   
  
By the time the flowers have fully bloomed outside Faye’s house, she isn’t around to see it.    
  
By the fourth time Faye sees her after the war, Celica never leaves her again.    
  
~*~


End file.
